We started our day with the ‘I Choose To Be Active’ 5km walk. We did this not only because it’s fun but understanding that Prevention is better than cure, that we must be active like Tata Mandela who was an amateur boxer. Mandela lived longer because he chose to be active. Many people die because of cancer, heart diseases, diabetes and stroke. Major factors remain tobacco use, lack of physical activity and inadequate nutrition. These diseases were hardly the cause of death in places like Hlogotlou but now they are a common feature in particular among women. It is estimated that by 2030 at least 50% of South Africans will suffer from obesity. Therefore we must commit as the community of Hlogotlou that we will do more of these walks and we will allow children to use this facility to keep active. This facility must never be a white elephant, we must jealously look after it.
The National Sport & Recreation Plan recognizes that South Africa has a serious problem regarding the building, shared utilization equitable access and maintenance of sport and recreation facilities that have a far reaching consequences for the transformation and development of sport.
During the budget vote in Parliament we seek to respond to the challenge of sport infrastructure backlog. We said, “An intervention to ensure that we improve access to participation opportunities, has been the approval of the national facilities plan. We are on average rolling out 60 quality facilities on the various grades, that an amount of R287m has been ring-fenced on the MIG to drive the roll out of these facilities.”Today I am pleased to announce that we have since revised that plan and we will be rolling out a facility every second week, mainly in rural municipalities. These facilities are meant to improve rural sport, we therefore want the involvement of District and local municipalities as well as chiefs to embrace these facilities and nature talent of our youth.

The dreams and aspirations of our people are clearly documented in the National Development Plan 2030 Vision, that we must create “an active and winning nation.” We can only do this if we engage our kids in sport while they are young.
South Africans still feel not adequately represented in our national sport teams, our national teams remain representative of a white race. Therefore early this year as the department of Sport & Recreation we signed a memorandum of understanding with the department of Basic Education in school sport in order to respond to this abnormality. We did this knowing very well that we ought to instill a culture of activism in sport among our youth while they are young and to use schools as a base to recruit talent in mass in order to transform our sport to reflect the demographics of our society.

I therefore hope that our schools and communities here in Hlogotlou will fully utilize these sport facilities for us to unearth and nature best talent. I fundamentally believe that future stars will come out of this village. If South Africa belongs to all, we must invest in villages, you too must feel part of South Africa, infrastructure and scout talent must come here.

In conclusion, I must thank Chief Mahlangu, the Province of Limpopo and the people of Elias Motsoaledi municipality for working with us until we hand over this upgraded facility. I sincerely hope that it will be fully utilized and looked after.
Let us use sport to ignite the imagination of our youth, we must help them to dream as future sport stars. Let us all celebrate Tata Madiba by having compassion and love for our youth. The future belongs to them.

I thank you

End

SRSA has many events happening throughout out the year and we need volunteers!

Major Stakeholders

Sport and Recreation South Africa (SRSA) is the national government department responsible for sport in South Africa. Aligned with its vision of creating An Active and Winning Nation, its primary focuses are providing opportunities for all South Africans to participate in sport; managing the regulatory framework thereof, and providing funding for different codes of sport.